Glespie, 19, is charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of second-degree child abuse in connection with a Feb. 18 fire at Interfaith Homes that killed Woods’ three youngest children – 1-year-old Ty’onna Henderson and 3-year-old twins Tevin and Te’Niyah Williams.

The three children were left alone prior to the 2 p.m. fire. Woods’ oldest daughter, Drayanna O’Day, was able to escape the fire and is currently living with an aunt.

Woods testified that she and Glespie began their day on Feb. 18 at about 10 a.m. when they and a friend, Antonio, went to the apartment of Woods’ sister, Charlonda Woods, to retrieve a TV to take back to Jonetta Woods’ apartment.

Woods told Gagie that she had a friend, Dijainique Smith, watch her four children while she, Glespie and Antonio, who is Smith’s boyfriend, went to get the TV. While the trio was at the apartment of Woods’ sister, Woods testified that she asked Glespie if he would watch her children while she went to the nearby apartment of a friend, LaToya Lesley, to give Lesley $5.

“I said, ‘Can you watch the kids while I go to Toya’s house?’” Woods said.

Once they had retrieved the TV, Woods said Glespie and Antonio headed back to her apartment with the TV. At that time, Woods said Smith left her apartment and told Woods she was leaving because she needed to change the diaper of Antonio’s niece who had been with her at Woods’ apartment.

That recollection of events by Woods drew repeated questions from Gagie, who quizzed her about why she would have asked Glespie to watch her children while she went to Lesley’s apartment if Smith was already caring for them.

Woods responded initially that she made the request of Glespie because Smith needed to leave. However, Gagie pressed her further saying that Woods’ own testimony showed she didn’t know Smith needed to leave Woods’ apartment until after she requested that Glespie care for them.

During the questioning, Woods, at one point, told Gagie she was aware of Smith’s need to leave her apartment prior to asking Glespie to care for the children.

Smith later took the stand, however, and told jurors that she told Woods she needed to leave the apartment to change the diaper of her boyfriend’s niece as Glespie and Antonio were returning with the TV. Smith also testified that the events of that day took place in the afternoon, and not beginning at 10 a.m., as Woods had testified.

Smith said Woods, Glespie and Antonio were gone for five to 10 minutes to retrieve the TV. When they returned, she said Glespie and Antonio brought the TV into Woods’ apartment.

At that point, Smith said Woods, who was on the front steps of her apartment, told Glespie “she was going to be back.”

From her apartment, Woods testified she went to Lesley’s apartment.

Lesley testified that when Woods showed up, the two talked about issues Woods and Glespie were having and made a plan for a couples’ evening together at Lesley’s apartment.

They were leaving to go get Woods's children and tell Glespie of the plan when Lesley and Woods encountered Woods’ sister, Charlonda Woods, who told Woods there was smoke in her apartment.

Jonetta Woods, while she was on the stand Wednesday, said that when she left Lesley’s apartment she found her apartment on fire and fire trucks and police cars already on scene. She also said she saw Glespie and Antonio standing on a hill outside of her apartment.

However, Lesley told a completely different story and said that no fire trucks or police cars were present when they learned of the fire and that she herself made one of the first 911 calls to Kalamazoo Public Safety.

She also said after hearing of the smoke in the apartment from Charlonda Woods, that she, Woods and Glespie ran to Woods’ apartment and Glespie tried kicking in the door of the apartment.

“He was just like we were, frantic,” Lesley said of Glespie. “Trying to get in.”

Later, when asked by Circuit Judge J. Richardson Johnson if Woods brought anything to Lesley that day, Lesley responded, “No, she just came to talk to me,” which contradicted Woods’ testimony Wednesday that she had gone to Lesley’s apartment that day to take her $5.

Jurors also heard Wednesday from Charlonda Woods, who testified that she heard her sister ask Glespie to watch her children when the couple and Antonio came to her apartment that day to retrieve Woods’ TV.

She testified that she became aware of the fire when Drayanna O’Day came to her apartment and told her about the blaze.

But things took an odd turn during Charlonda Woods’ testimony when, at one point, she testified that Woods’ apartment was already on fire when Charlonda Woods saw her sister walking to Lesley’s apartment.

Charlonda Woods later told Assistant Prosecutor Alan Harbaugh that the statement was incorrect and that she saw Woods walking to Lesley’s apartment prior to the fire.

However, when Harbaugh tried to clarify the statement with Charlonda Woods and asked her, “When you saw Jonetta walk away from her apartment, at that time the apartment wasn’t on fire?”

“It wasn’t that bad … It hadn’t gotten high,” Woods responded.

Harbaugh asked the question again if Woods’ apartment was on fire at the time her sister saw her walking to Lesley’s apartment. After a long pause and an instruction from Johnson to answer the question, Charlonda Woods responded, “No.”

Testimony in Glespie’s trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday. Gagie told Johnson Wednesday that he plans to call four witnesses to the stand once Harbaugh rests his case.

Rex Hall Jr. is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. You can reach him at rhall2@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter.